RIAS zoom talks with alumni focus on tensions in USA, Germany’s Covid-19 response
More than 60 RIAS Berlin Commission alumni members and candidates for future programs took part in three RIAS Zoom Talk sessions this week with distinguished alumni and leading journalists in Germany and the United States.
University of Minnesota journalism student Nicholas Scheffler (pictured left) talked on June 2 about his experiences in Minneapolis and some of the background about racial tensions in the city that has seen an eruption of violence in the last week after a black man was killed while in police custody on Memorial Day.
He talked about how there were large demonstrations that began peacefully but later turned violent. Scheffler, who was a RIAS fellow from the 2019 student program to Germany, said there was a lot of anger on his campus and in the city about the sense of injustice. “It’s anger but it’s coupled with deep sadness,” he said. “It’s very humbling. You can feel the community’s pain everywhere.”
Scott Libin, a University of Minnesota journalism professor and past chairman of the RTDNA (pictured above), joined fellow alumni Stacey Samuel, an executive producer at Al Jazeera in Washington DC who previously worked for NPR and CNN, to talk to another RIAS zoom group on June 3 about some of the deeper issues behind the protests as well as take a look at the media coverage across the country and around the world about the turmoil that began in Minneapolis, Minnesota on May 25.
Matt Karnitschnig, POLITICO’s Chief European Correspondent, talked to another group on June 3 about how Germany has managed to come through the Covid-19 pandemic less scathed than many other countries. He said it was a combination of dumb luck of getting an early warning after the virus erupted in Italy along with a strong medical care system that was prepared for the pandemic.
Karnitschnig, who is also a member of the RIAS Berlin Commission board, also talked about the political landscape in Germany and how Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Conservative party has risen strongly in opinion polls in recent months as voters give her and her party credit for their leadership during the crisis. The next Germany federal election is due in the fall of 2021. Merkel is not standing for re-election. The RIAS Berlin Commission is planning to hold another one-week RIAS alumni program in Berlin during the week of the election — likely in late September 2021.
The RIAS zoom talks will continue this weekend on Saturday at 4 p.m. Berlin time (10 a.m. New York time) with a talk with New York Times video producer Ainara Tiefenthäler, who worked on this chilling video story about the death of George Floyd while in police custody. Tiefenthäler won the RIAS Media Prize in 2018 for another story on problems that asylum seekers were having in parts of Germany. “Land of Good – Seeking Asylum in Germany, and Finding Hatred”. Here is a link to the prize-winning video.
Please write to info@darkseagreen-dog-940501.hostingersite.com for more details about Saturday’s zoom talk.
